Raw Orange Chocolate “Cheesecake”

by Susan on December 10, 2009

What do you do when a blizzard cancels your raw food cooking class and you have cashews soaking for prep? Make a great raw recipe for cheesecake! I love the combination of orange and chocolate. A bag of beautiful, fragrant oranges was sitting on the counter. Time to have some fun. The texture came out beautiful, and the taste is divine. Another recipe that would be perfect for holiday entertaining. I used a little orange essential oil in this to really kick up the orange flavor. You might want to note that essential oils are not considered raw and you want to be sure you are using food grade oils for recipes. This is a really simple, quick yet impressive “cheesecake”.

Orange Chocolate Cheesecake

Crust:

1 C Almonds*

1/4 C Cacao Powder

3 Dates

Combine all ingredients in the food processor. Process until ground fine. Mixture should hold together when pressed. If it doesn’t, add water, 1 T at a time until texture is achieved. Set aside 1/4 C. Press remaining into bottom of 6″ spring form pan. Place in refrigerator.

*I always pre-soak all my almonds and dry them as soon as I get them.

Filling:

3 Oranges (make sure you have very good oranges)

2/3 C Agave (or liquid sweetener of your choice)

2 1/2 C Cashews (soaked at least 3 hours)

3/4 C Coconut Butter

1/2 t. Sweet Orange Essential Oil (optional as it is not raw but still very healthy)

Grate the zest off of all the oranges. You should have at least 3 T. Be careful to only get the orange part as the pith (the white) is bitter. Squeeze the juice out of all the oranges. You should have about 2/3 C. Place cashews, agave, coconut butter, zest, essential oil, and agave and orange juice in the food processor and process until very smooth. Pour over crust, sprinkle extra crust on top and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.

I see how you soaked the almonds but what if i don’t have a dehydrater? I’m not a complete RAW foodie but loved a chessecake I had at a RAW resturant. So do I have to soak and dehydrate the almonds? How long will i have to leave them out to dry?

I love the orange chocolate cake. It is very easy to make.I used amber honey instead of agave and blood oranges. I left it in the fridge overnight.The taste was wonderful and tart.
Thank you so mush for making these recipes available.I love to know how to make the raw german chocolate cake,which I bought at whole foods.

Since first seeing this image, I can’t get it out of my head, and I can’t wait to try it out!

I’m glad I read all the comments, especially the one about substituting honey for agave (although Fatima used honey without any problems). I prefer not to use agave anymore, but can yacon syrup be substituted? What sweeteners would work as a substitute?

Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful creations with us. I have a question. I too soak my almonds for anywhere between 12-24 hours. I am interested in soaking all of them when I get them and then dehydrating them to get them dry. But in those times for making recipes that calls for soaked nuts, such as almond milk and other things, do you resoak them? Thanks

I have a question about the soaking. I am interested in also soaking my almonds when I buy them. I normally soak them for 12-24 hours, but lately have been thinking of soaking as soon as I buy and dehydrate them till they are dry and ready to go. But my question is, what about the recipes that call for soaked almonds because of the consistency. For example almond milk about those things. Do you just resoak them?

I just made this and it turned out exactly as the picture. Absolutely DELICIOUS! Thanks so much. I was looking for a choc orange cheescake that was brown as I had one in a raw food cafe – this is different, but in a different YUM way. I love your web site, I look forward to exploring more Thanks a million from down under (Perth, Australia).

Your cheesecake looks absolutely delicious. I’m new to raw deserts. When you dehydrate your nuts what temp do you use and for how long.
Also does the cheesecake easily come out of the Pan?
And finally if I were to make a berry version would I follow your recipe

Why do some of the posts want an alternate sweetner ? Is something wrong with Agave? Thank you in advance.

Some people don’t like agave. So, I like to let them know there is alternatives. Some agave is not as good as others. Personally I really like Xagave. If you use a spring form pan, there is no problem getting the cheesecake out. I can’t comment on the berry version as I don’t know how you would make it…but I would think it would work. When ever you change ingredients, you change the outcome. You could always experiment….

Wow , thank you Susan, i just make this beautiful recipe and it turned out exactly the same as yours This orange cake is going to be a birthday cake for a very dear friend of mine. Greetings from Byron Bay, Australia.

Since this is a raw, vegan site, we use titles loosely. If we call it an orange, chocolate cashew cake, just doesn’t represent it. It is very similar to a cheese cake. We also make our “cheese” with nuts.

Susan,
I see that the question has been asked about substituting the Agave and that you answered by saying that some people don’t like it (which I am one) and that there are substitutes… though 2 people have used honey, one worked with the recipe, the other did not.
Can you offer any other substitutions for the Agave? Stevia or Xylitol perhaps? I’m new to this and don’t want to make a disaster and have no real clues what works for substitutions in this type of situation.
thanks!

I made this cake for a dinner hosted by a friend. I made 2 batches. one with 6inch and and one with 9inch. My 9 inch came out perfect and the people at the party loved it. As most of my friends like light sugar on their cakes this was perfect. My 6ich was good but not too good. It didn’t set properly. Two things didn’t go well. One is I soaked the roasted cashews for probably hour(recipe didn’t mention whether it should be roasted or raw). Secondly I think I added too much zest. May be the oranges at home are too flavorful(we have 2 good orange trees). However the taste was little bit bitter on my small cake and it didn’t set well. My big cake(i used 1 and 1/2 ingredients) was a hit! I again used roasted cashews but let them soaked overnight and used less zest(just a few strands). Thanks!

About the cashews…this is a raw food website. So, we use raw cashews. :-). Second, if you do not follow the recipe, ie using roasted cashews and not soaking them the proper time, I can’t guarantee results. Orange zest does have a bitterness to it and if you added too much, it would make your cheesecake bitter. The soaking time is extremely important to get the cashews to the right consistency and roasted cashews have very different properties than raw.
Glad your larger one turned out. Cheers!

I’m not sure what I did wrong but this didn’t firm up like in the picture. I followed the directions exactly and ended up putting it in the freezer to get to be more pie than pudding. It tasted great,just flopped out of the form. Any tricks I can use? I heard Irish moss can be used just not sure how?

ok..found out why mine didn’t set. The recommended four hours in the recipe is *NOT* long enough!
Checked the leftovers the next day and it had the consistency I expected…firm enough instead of molten lava like.
I’d recommend changing the recipe notes to mention this. And yes, I used real coconut butter….exact same ingredients, 6″ pan, etc.

This looks amazing. I’ve been looking for a raw vegan cheesecake that’s soy free and this sounds perfect. Coconut butter / oil is pretty individual in its properties I know, but sadly I’m allergic to coconut in all forms. Any suggestions for a replacement setting agent? Just discovered your site via Pinterest and am loving it!

Great recipe, will have to try. Do you know how long I can keep it in fridge? I like to prepare small batches of mini cheesecakes so I can eat it when I want and not make from scratch every day.
Are they good for freezing?

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